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Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer speaks Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2019, after being sworn-in as Michigan's 49th governor on the steps of the State Capitol in Lansing, Michigan. Matthew Dae Smith/Lansing State Journal

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer speaks Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2019, after being sworn-in as Michigan's 49th governor on the steps of the State Capitol in Lansing, Michigan. Matthew Dae Smith/Lansing State Journal

Honor Guard rehearse early Tuesday morning, Jan. 1, 2019, on the steps of the State Capitol in Lansing, Michigan, prior to the inauguration ceremony of Michigan's 49th governor Gretchen Whitmer. The ceremony takes place from 10:30 AM to noon. Matthew Dae Smith/Lansing State Journal

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer speaks Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2019, after being sworn-in as Michigan's 49th governor on the steps of the State Capitol in Lansing, Michigan. Matthew Dae Smith/Lansing State Journal

Former Michigan Governor Jim Blanchard is escorted by a member of the military to the Capitol steps for the 2019 inauguration Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2019, at the State Capitol in downtown Lansing.
Matthew Dae Smith/Lansing State Journal

Former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder is taken to the Capitol steps by military escort for the 2019 inauguration swearing-in ceremony Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2019, at the Michigan State Capitol in downtown Lansing. [AP Photo/Matthew Dae Smith/Lansing State Journal] Matthew Dae Smith/Lansing State Journal

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer hugs her husband Marc Mallory Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2019, after being sworn-in as Michigan's 49th governor on the steps of the State Capitol in Lansing, Michigan. Also pictured are (from left: daughters Sydney and Sherry, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist. Pictured on the right is former Gov. Rick Snyder. Matthew Dae Smith/Lansing State Journal

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer waves Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2019, after being sworn-in as Michigan's 49th governor on the steps of the State Capitol in Lansing, Michigan. Matthew Dae Smith/Lansing State Journal

LANSING – Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer took the oath of office as Michigan's 49th governor Tuesday, challenging Michiganders to overcome their partisan differences to build a better state, as she said the state's residents have done previously.

More than 2,000 people braved freezing temperatures on a gray and damp day. Rain that drenched and muddied the Capitol grounds overnight stayed away during the two-hour outdoor ceremony.

Whitmer embraced her daughters Sherry and Sydney and husband, Marc, after using a family bible to take the oath of office from Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Clement, a Republican nominee to the court. Officials had said Justice Richard Bernstein, a Democratic nominee, would give Whitmer the oath, but Bernstein spoke briefly and handed the task to Clement, in an apparent sign of bipartisanship.

Whitmer, an attorney and former Senate minority leader from East Lansing, campaigned on a platform of fixing "the damn roads," improving education, and cleaning up the environment, defeating Republican Attorney General Bill Schuette by nine percentage points.

Whitmer hearkened back 60 years to the construction of the Mackinac Bridge linking Michigan's Upper and Lower peninsulas under Democratic Gov. G. Mennen "Soapy" Willliams.

"At the time, many people believed building a suspension bridge that long was not possible. Others thought the politicians would not be able to put their differences aside to get it done. They even called it 'Soapy’s Folly,' " she said.

"But together, leaders from both parties, and workers from across the state, proved them all wrong. And in November 1957, against the odds, the Mighty Mac opened."

Michigan can come together again to tackle the problems of today, she said.

Also on the podium was Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, outgoing Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, former Democratic Gov. Jim Blanchard, and former Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who held office during one of Michigan's worst recessions and whom Schuette repeatedly, but unsuccessfully, tried to link with Whitmer in predicting a similar economic setback if Whitmer was elected.

Also sworn in were Whitmer's running mate, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel and Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.

Nessel, the first openly gay official to hold statewide office in Michigan, pledged to work for equality for everyone.

"We are all Michiganders and we are all entitled to equal protection under the law," Nessel told the crowd.

Benson pledged to move Michigan from "worst to first" in terms of government transparency and ethics.

Also, "I am ready to work to make us a national leader in fair and accessible elections," Benson said.

An inaugural ball was scheduled from 7-10 p.m. at the Cobo Center in Detroit. Tickets are $150 and can be purchased on the website of Whitmer's transition office, michigantransition.org.

Whitmer took office following a contentious lame-duck session of the Legislature in which Republicans who control the state House and Senate brought forward bills that were seen as attempts to take power away from Whitmer and other incoming Democrats elected to statewide office.

However, some of the most aggressive attacks on the executive power of Whitmer and the newly elected Democratic attorney general and secretary of state — such as a bill to strip campaign finance responsibility from Benson — never made it to Snyder's desk.

Others were vetoed by Snyder, including a bill that would have given the Legislature greater powers to intervene in court cases and was seen by critics as infringing on the powers of both the attorney general and the judiciary, and one that would have barred the secretary of state and attorney general from requiring disclosure of "dark money" campaign donors, without a court order.

But Snyder also pushed through and signed a bill and agreements with Canadian energy giant Enbridge to allow the company to dig a $350-million tunnel beneath the Straits of Mackinac to house a replacement for Enbridge's aging Line 5 oil pipeline. Those actions happened after Whitmer and Nessel said they opposed the proposed tunnel and wanted to decommission Line 5 to head off the risk of an environmentally disastrous rupture and spill.

Retired Detroit educators Theresa Mattison and spouse Maurice Pope drove to Lansing from Detroit on Monday night with Mattison’s sister Barbara for Tuesday's inauguration. All three said they are hoping a change in administration will result in positive change in Michigan.